The present disclosure relates generally to a radiography system and a method of controlling the radiography system.
Radiography imaging systems are widely used in hospitals. The radiography imaging system comprises a radiation source and a detector. The radiation source generates a plurality of x-ray beams. An operator (expert technician) is required to operate the radiography imaging system for imaging a patient. A current operation workflow of the radiography imaging system comprises many manual operations by the operator for initializing an exposure period after positioning the patient relative to the radiation source and the detector. The operator's inaccurate visual estimation and/or a patient's motion occurring after positioning may result in unacceptable images. For example, some aspects of an anatomy of the patient may be missing from a projected field of view of the radiation source if the radiation source does not well align with the detector. The patient may move after the detector is well positioned relative to the patient but before the radiation source is actuated to acquire an image. All those reasons may affect the quality of the images. As such, retakes may be needed.
For example, to acquire of a chest x-ray image, the current workflow requires the operator (expert technician) to usher the patient to an x-ray detector of an imager in an examination room, adjust the detector and an x-ray tube of the radiation source to an appropriate height and adjust a setting of a collimator at same time. The technician expert then leaves the examination room and releases x-ray exposure. There are lots of manual operations in current workflow. The technical expert initiates the radiation source by inaccurate visual estimation. Thus, the technician expert may not narrow the field of view sufficiently. It would increase radiation dose to the patient. And, as the technician expert can't get a physiognomy information of the patient (such as a size or thickness of the patient) in current work flow, the technician expert can't reduce the amount of the radiation dose delivered to the patient. It may result in large dosages delivered to the patient or a long exposure time.
Thus, there is a need for a radiography imaging system and a method of controlling the radiography imaging system to address at least one of the above-mentioned problems.